HTR leader takes part in federal meeting

To help determine how the nation can incite innovation, High Tech Rochester Inc. last Thursday was invited to participate in a federal interagency meeting.

Federal representatives organized the meeting, titled Federal Interagency Roundtable: Regional Innovation Clusters and Entrepreneurship, to receive input from best practice locations as they work on developing new national policies to encourage regional entrepreneurship. Twenty individuals were invited to join, including James Senall, HTR’s president.

“I am deeply honored to have had the opportunity to participate in such an important dialogue,” Senall said. “It is gratifying to see that the collaborative efforts under way here in the Rochester region are being noticed by policy makers in Washington.”

The meeting included representatives from the White House, Small Business Administration, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of Labor, Brookings Institution, Council on Competitiveness and National Urban League.

A non-profit economic development organization, HTR works with small local companies to improve their competitiveness. With its economic development partners, it helps provide a resource network to drive regional growth.

“For a region to be successful with innovation-based economic growth, it must understand its assets and be able to quickly connect the right resources with the right opportunities,” Senall said.